Very nice win tonight. Most legit of the season.
Peja ( A- ) - Started off looking good and very active, grabbed an actual basketball rebound in traffic and...Peja posted up! A good sign for the rest of the game. Scoring fell way off after the first quarter, but was crossing that great divide again tonight - was NOT just a shooter out there, but a good basketball player with a nice shot. Tonight Peja left the softy shooter-only act to Micahel Redd, who had little effect and who Peja largely took out of the game with smart position defense. On the other end was guarded by Redd, and Peja actually used his size advantage for the first time in recent memory. Also again showed some ability to set people up on drop off passes off the drive (I keep on waiting for the other shoe to drop on that one once word gets out and people adjust to take advantage of Peja's lack of ballhandiling and quickness, but he's been able to make one or two nice interior passes like that a game for some time now). Not an explosive scoring game for Peja, but a very good all around BASKETBALL game which saw him making significant contributions whether he was scoring or not.
Reef ( A- ) - efficient but quiet start with minor contributions in a number of areas. Statistically lost the battle against Joe Smith in the first half, which should not happen. Began to really turn it on in the second half and battled well inside on defense, even including for a few minutes against Magliore. Was it as good as the numbers? No, not really. But in the second half showed the sort of fight and scrap you need to see from a POWER forward and really filled up the stat sheet. 16pts 7rebs is nothing to write home about. But do it on 67% shooting, throw in 6ast, 4stl, 3blk (perhaps a hometown scorekeeper there) and you have a very nice all around contribution as he and Brad combined to carry us in the second half.
Miller ( A- ) - a tough one to grade because for three quarters was completely turning the center position upside down – was getting manhandled in the middle by Magliore and getting creamed on the glass, but was turning around and stroking long jumpers (even hit a three just before the halftime buzzer to extend us out to a 4pt lead) and in the second half in particular setting up King after King with sweet Princeton passes from the elbow (which mostly means backdoor cuts, which the Bucks seemed very slow to recognize for some reason). If you had looked at the boxscore at the end of the third quarter without knowing who/what Brad is, or is supposed to be, there is absolutely no way you would ever have guessed he was a center -- something like 14pts 2rebs 6ast. And then he turns around in the 4th, which was kind of partially garbagetime (even though Rick raised some eyebrows (mine at least) by insisting on playing the starters to the bitter end.) and starts dominating the defensive glass and even blocking shots. What happened? How do you grade it? Statistically its probably another A-. I was not amused at all at him letting the Bucks push him around and kick sand in his face for most of the game however, so I knock it to a B+. Then I remember how he dominated the game with his second half passing, and its back to an A-. Then I remember how many of his "center" numbers were put up in garbagetime and its back to a B+…well, you get the idea. And in the end…., hey we got the nice victory, so A- with an asterisk.
Wells ( B- ) - scrappy effort, seemingly as always. Started the game struggling to hit his shots, inside or out, including a couple at point blank range. Got into physical battles on both ends of the court, some of which he won, some of which he lost. Thankfully delivered a hard foul or two to stop layups, and got back on defense. Didn't look slow or lazy just not very effective. Came out in the second half far more efficient, and continued to add toughness while otherwise staying out of the way of other guys having bigger games. Well, except for a flying transition dunk he made to punctuate a big rally and get the crowd to its feet. A satisfactory game just in that he did things we need (scrap), but not one of his best.
Bibby ( B+ ) - hit his shots for a second straight game (except the threes), did a good job pushing the pace, and made a few nifty passes, not all of which resulted in hoops. Was having some problems bringing it up against the quickness of the Bucks guards, but stuck with it and found ways to get it done. Defense was considerably better than the norm for him, especially against that sort of quickness, and he generally kept the Bucks guards from slicing through the paint at will. Helped us get off to a fast start along with Peja, and then let Brad and Reef dominate second half action and bring us home.
Skinner ( C- ) - continuing his string of largely ineffective stints. No idea what is up, but it seems like once a game he makes a defensive mistake, and his boardwork is just absent. The very things that I would have assumed we were always going to get out of him.
Martin ( B- ) - missed a gimme layup off a great Bibby feed to end the first quarter, and didn't do much else in the first half. But came back late in the game and made some good hustle plays grabbing long boards, stepping in for charges etc. For the second game in a row a grading challenge for the bench, which continues to be terrible in first halves, and then rebound in the waning minutes. In this case, the lack of impact while the game was still in question carries the greater weight, but the nice hustle and impact late mitigates. Translated = a B- which can be argued either way depending on what you are looking for.
Thomas ( B ) - in the first half, was continuing the story of his season so far, rebounding well but could get nothing going offensively. But in the second half, finally got aggressive off the bench, started figuring out his offense on both the perimeter and the drive, and continued to snatch strong boards. Overall a solid game with some actual impact off the bench. That’s been pretty rare this year, and nice to see.
Hart ( B- ) - one nice finish at the rim, otherwise nothing much in an ineffective first half stint. Played better in the second half, hitting his shots for us but never really running the offense so much as letting others run it while he played off he ball. Defense was ok, but not the ferocious in your face stuff that he can unleash. 8pts in 12min called for a B here. But I went a tick lower because I thought others were creating his offense for him, rather than he for them, as you would hope a PG would do. Still one of his better backup stints, especially in the second half. Just not good enough to have real confidence in him running the team yet.
Garcia ( C- ) - nothing in his first half stint except for missing an open three, nothing much late either except for a good pass to Kevin under the hoop. In general, struggled or was ineffective except the one nice play.
Price ( INC ) - garbagetime
Corliss ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Adelman ( B+ ) -- For the sake of the people around him, I hope Geoff had his legs crossed while he was watching this one, because this had to be his wetdream game in assembling this lineup -- everybody contributing. Nobody dominating. 4 guys with 5 or more assists. 6 guys with 5 or more rebounds. Everybody sharing the ball. And pretty good team defense as well (the Bucks were helping by throwing the ball all over the court). So, if Rick got most of the blame for the debacles in recent weeks, does he get most of the credit now? Yes and no. Yes, because this is of course what he has always preached. They played the game as he teaches it tonight. No, because its hard to see what he did significantly different tonight to inspire this. Tonight the players just bought in and executed. I have my doubts Rick has gotten significantly more inspirational in the last week, so this may be on the guys as much as Rick. As for the coach himself -- the good: I saw him actually barking at several of the guys as they headed into one timeout. Wasn't going to tolerate stupid play, and that's a good thing. On the other hand made a couple of questionable moves I thought -- first, I was surprised, and not in a good way, to see Rick once again insist on putting 5 benchers on the floor together in the early second quarter. And to nobody's surprise, except perhaps Rick's, we started to struggle once again. Crowd went dead with apprehension. We turned it over. At least coach didn't stay with it for long (Bonzi was back within 3 minutes, and Brad soon therafter), but still -- really now, that's just beating your head against the wall. And secondly, I did not like how long our starters stayed on the floor in the 4th. This game was borderline won for the last 6 minutes at least. And yet at the two minute mark you would have found 4 of our 5 starters on the floor racking up minutes. Maybe it was done to try to pad the score and get our guys feeling good about themselves, but if somebody gets hurt in a situation like that you feel like a horse's ***. And it just was not necessary. The bench needs work too, and could have used the time in a 20pt blowout. Rick's shown this tendency in the past, and while I generally poopoo the "too many minutes" complaints about him, in this one setting it does bother me as just completely unnecessary in a long season. So while the team grade would be up there as an A or A-, and I'm going to go with the lower letter for Rick.
Peja ( A- ) - Started off looking good and very active, grabbed an actual basketball rebound in traffic and...Peja posted up! A good sign for the rest of the game. Scoring fell way off after the first quarter, but was crossing that great divide again tonight - was NOT just a shooter out there, but a good basketball player with a nice shot. Tonight Peja left the softy shooter-only act to Micahel Redd, who had little effect and who Peja largely took out of the game with smart position defense. On the other end was guarded by Redd, and Peja actually used his size advantage for the first time in recent memory. Also again showed some ability to set people up on drop off passes off the drive (I keep on waiting for the other shoe to drop on that one once word gets out and people adjust to take advantage of Peja's lack of ballhandiling and quickness, but he's been able to make one or two nice interior passes like that a game for some time now). Not an explosive scoring game for Peja, but a very good all around BASKETBALL game which saw him making significant contributions whether he was scoring or not.
Reef ( A- ) - efficient but quiet start with minor contributions in a number of areas. Statistically lost the battle against Joe Smith in the first half, which should not happen. Began to really turn it on in the second half and battled well inside on defense, even including for a few minutes against Magliore. Was it as good as the numbers? No, not really. But in the second half showed the sort of fight and scrap you need to see from a POWER forward and really filled up the stat sheet. 16pts 7rebs is nothing to write home about. But do it on 67% shooting, throw in 6ast, 4stl, 3blk (perhaps a hometown scorekeeper there) and you have a very nice all around contribution as he and Brad combined to carry us in the second half.
Miller ( A- ) - a tough one to grade because for three quarters was completely turning the center position upside down – was getting manhandled in the middle by Magliore and getting creamed on the glass, but was turning around and stroking long jumpers (even hit a three just before the halftime buzzer to extend us out to a 4pt lead) and in the second half in particular setting up King after King with sweet Princeton passes from the elbow (which mostly means backdoor cuts, which the Bucks seemed very slow to recognize for some reason). If you had looked at the boxscore at the end of the third quarter without knowing who/what Brad is, or is supposed to be, there is absolutely no way you would ever have guessed he was a center -- something like 14pts 2rebs 6ast. And then he turns around in the 4th, which was kind of partially garbagetime (even though Rick raised some eyebrows (mine at least) by insisting on playing the starters to the bitter end.) and starts dominating the defensive glass and even blocking shots. What happened? How do you grade it? Statistically its probably another A-. I was not amused at all at him letting the Bucks push him around and kick sand in his face for most of the game however, so I knock it to a B+. Then I remember how he dominated the game with his second half passing, and its back to an A-. Then I remember how many of his "center" numbers were put up in garbagetime and its back to a B+…well, you get the idea. And in the end…., hey we got the nice victory, so A- with an asterisk.
Wells ( B- ) - scrappy effort, seemingly as always. Started the game struggling to hit his shots, inside or out, including a couple at point blank range. Got into physical battles on both ends of the court, some of which he won, some of which he lost. Thankfully delivered a hard foul or two to stop layups, and got back on defense. Didn't look slow or lazy just not very effective. Came out in the second half far more efficient, and continued to add toughness while otherwise staying out of the way of other guys having bigger games. Well, except for a flying transition dunk he made to punctuate a big rally and get the crowd to its feet. A satisfactory game just in that he did things we need (scrap), but not one of his best.
Bibby ( B+ ) - hit his shots for a second straight game (except the threes), did a good job pushing the pace, and made a few nifty passes, not all of which resulted in hoops. Was having some problems bringing it up against the quickness of the Bucks guards, but stuck with it and found ways to get it done. Defense was considerably better than the norm for him, especially against that sort of quickness, and he generally kept the Bucks guards from slicing through the paint at will. Helped us get off to a fast start along with Peja, and then let Brad and Reef dominate second half action and bring us home.
Skinner ( C- ) - continuing his string of largely ineffective stints. No idea what is up, but it seems like once a game he makes a defensive mistake, and his boardwork is just absent. The very things that I would have assumed we were always going to get out of him.
Martin ( B- ) - missed a gimme layup off a great Bibby feed to end the first quarter, and didn't do much else in the first half. But came back late in the game and made some good hustle plays grabbing long boards, stepping in for charges etc. For the second game in a row a grading challenge for the bench, which continues to be terrible in first halves, and then rebound in the waning minutes. In this case, the lack of impact while the game was still in question carries the greater weight, but the nice hustle and impact late mitigates. Translated = a B- which can be argued either way depending on what you are looking for.
Thomas ( B ) - in the first half, was continuing the story of his season so far, rebounding well but could get nothing going offensively. But in the second half, finally got aggressive off the bench, started figuring out his offense on both the perimeter and the drive, and continued to snatch strong boards. Overall a solid game with some actual impact off the bench. That’s been pretty rare this year, and nice to see.
Hart ( B- ) - one nice finish at the rim, otherwise nothing much in an ineffective first half stint. Played better in the second half, hitting his shots for us but never really running the offense so much as letting others run it while he played off he ball. Defense was ok, but not the ferocious in your face stuff that he can unleash. 8pts in 12min called for a B here. But I went a tick lower because I thought others were creating his offense for him, rather than he for them, as you would hope a PG would do. Still one of his better backup stints, especially in the second half. Just not good enough to have real confidence in him running the team yet.
Garcia ( C- ) - nothing in his first half stint except for missing an open three, nothing much late either except for a good pass to Kevin under the hoop. In general, struggled or was ineffective except the one nice play.
Price ( INC ) - garbagetime
Corliss ( INC ) -- garbagetime
Adelman ( B+ ) -- For the sake of the people around him, I hope Geoff had his legs crossed while he was watching this one, because this had to be his wetdream game in assembling this lineup -- everybody contributing. Nobody dominating. 4 guys with 5 or more assists. 6 guys with 5 or more rebounds. Everybody sharing the ball. And pretty good team defense as well (the Bucks were helping by throwing the ball all over the court). So, if Rick got most of the blame for the debacles in recent weeks, does he get most of the credit now? Yes and no. Yes, because this is of course what he has always preached. They played the game as he teaches it tonight. No, because its hard to see what he did significantly different tonight to inspire this. Tonight the players just bought in and executed. I have my doubts Rick has gotten significantly more inspirational in the last week, so this may be on the guys as much as Rick. As for the coach himself -- the good: I saw him actually barking at several of the guys as they headed into one timeout. Wasn't going to tolerate stupid play, and that's a good thing. On the other hand made a couple of questionable moves I thought -- first, I was surprised, and not in a good way, to see Rick once again insist on putting 5 benchers on the floor together in the early second quarter. And to nobody's surprise, except perhaps Rick's, we started to struggle once again. Crowd went dead with apprehension. We turned it over. At least coach didn't stay with it for long (Bonzi was back within 3 minutes, and Brad soon therafter), but still -- really now, that's just beating your head against the wall. And secondly, I did not like how long our starters stayed on the floor in the 4th. This game was borderline won for the last 6 minutes at least. And yet at the two minute mark you would have found 4 of our 5 starters on the floor racking up minutes. Maybe it was done to try to pad the score and get our guys feeling good about themselves, but if somebody gets hurt in a situation like that you feel like a horse's ***. And it just was not necessary. The bench needs work too, and could have used the time in a 20pt blowout. Rick's shown this tendency in the past, and while I generally poopoo the "too many minutes" complaints about him, in this one setting it does bother me as just completely unnecessary in a long season. So while the team grade would be up there as an A or A-, and I'm going to go with the lower letter for Rick.
Last edited:
